Field of the Invention
The present invention is a micro electro-mechanical system or MEMS gyroscope. More specifically, the present invention is a hybrid MEMS microfluidic gyroscope.
Description of the Related Art
Low power, low cost, small-footprint gyroscope development has been predominantly driven by the mobile phone and gaming industry. However the power and reliability requirement, in these industries, is far less stringent than those required for implantable devices. In vestibular prototypes, the gyroscope tends to consume most of the supplied power, and as such, the lack of a suitable off-the-shelf gyroscope may be holding back a fully implantable vestibular prosthesis. State-of-the-art gyroscopes avoid utilizing large masses by vibrating small masses and exploiting the Coriolis Effect. Vibrating structures need voltages as high as approximately forty volts to electro-statically stimulate the vibration. In addition, vibrating these structures at hundreds of kilohertz, for over a decade, is likely to cause fatigue and premature failure of the sensor. Although non-vibratory structures have been explored, so far their complexity has impeded their advance into mainstream products and the reliability of a large solid mass suspended in vacuum on thin suspension beams is questionable, especially if dropped on a hard surface. Therefore, there is a clear need for a much lower power angular rate sensor that may reliably operate over the remaining lifetime of a patient.